Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified in front of a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday morning, where he was grilled over a new $1.8 BILLION “slush fund” created by the Trump administration to pay off snowflake supporters who are sad about being investigated for criminal acts during the Biden administration.
The Associated Press digs into the details of this new “Anti-Weaponization Fund”:
President Donald Trump ‘s allies who believe they have been wrongly investigated and prosecuted could soon have access to a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund, the Justice Department announced Monday in a move slammed by Democrats as unconstitutional and corrupt.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will represent “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.” Blanche’s statement made no mention of how investigations and prosecutions of Trump’s political opponents under his watch have exposed the Justice Department to the same claims of politicized law enforcement that he has said he opposed.
The fund was announced as part of a deal to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
The fund is in keeping with Trump’s long-running claims that the Justice Department during the Biden administration was weaponized against him, even though then-President Joe Biden himself was scrutinized during that time. The fund would represent not only a highly unorthodox resolution but also a further demonstration of the Trump administration’s eagerness to reward allies who were investigated and in some cases charged and convicted.
Blanche told Senators today that Jan. 6 rioters are among those who could be eligible to apply for compensation from Trump’s slush fund, as are Republican lawmakers whose phone records were seized as part of an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith in 2023. It’s also worth noting that both President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, are theoretically be eligible for payouts — not that it would ever happen.
And guess how this money will be distributed? Decisions will be made by a panel of five people that will bypass congressional approval; those five people will be appointed by Blanche, and President Trump will have the ability to remove any of the five at any time, for any reason.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen was rightfully incensed, calling it a “pure theft of public funds”:
“Rewarding individuals who committed crimes is obscene. Every American can see through this illegal, corrupt, self-dealing scheme.”
Colorado Democrats are also speaking out. Congressman Jason Crow (D-Aurora) called the fund “outright corruption,” and Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Lakewood) labelled it a “slush fund for [Trump’s] insurrectionist buddies.”
But it’s not just Democrats who are appalled. As The New York Times reports:
The top lawyer at the Treasury Department stepped down on Monday in the wake of the creation of a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that could soon make payments to President Trump’s political allies, according to three people familiar with the move.
Brian Morrissey, the Treasury’s general counsel, resigned from the position seven months after he was confirmed to it by the Senate and just hours after the Trump administration announced the fund on Monday.
A sarcastic story today from The Onion is a little too close to what could be our next reality:
“I’m calling upon Congress today to immediately provide me with $1.2 trillion in funding that I currently do not possess but which I will possess once it is given to me,” said Trump, acknowledging that he had previously asked for just $900 billion but was now requesting more so that he would have more.
We’ll leave the final word to Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed:
“This is a travesty of the law in the United States, and the Constitution.”
And it’s just another day in the Trump administration.
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